The article focuses on the opposition, in Pirandello's work, between body and language as vehicles to convey the narration of life experience. While the body represents experience in its pure and primeval state, language - especially written language - always has a mediatory, often distorting function. This opposition lies at the core of Pirandello's concept of the origin of artistic creation, as expressed in Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore. The work of art is born from the need to find a form for the impossibility for language to express, to give feelings a voice. It is therefore the expression of a void, a mise-en-scène of its own failure. In this context, it is impossible for Pirandello to talk about autobiography, as a real autobiography could only exist in the transparent realm of the language of the body. The only possible representation of the self is one which not only accepts the distorting power of language, but makes of such a distortion the core of self-representation.
Autobiologia: corpo e discorso in Pirandello / D'Intino, Franco. - In: PIRANDELLO STUDIES. - ISSN 1471-9363. - STAMPA. - 24:(2004), pp. 17-25.
Autobiologia: corpo e discorso in Pirandello
D'INTINO, FRANCO
2004
Abstract
The article focuses on the opposition, in Pirandello's work, between body and language as vehicles to convey the narration of life experience. While the body represents experience in its pure and primeval state, language - especially written language - always has a mediatory, often distorting function. This opposition lies at the core of Pirandello's concept of the origin of artistic creation, as expressed in Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore. The work of art is born from the need to find a form for the impossibility for language to express, to give feelings a voice. It is therefore the expression of a void, a mise-en-scène of its own failure. In this context, it is impossible for Pirandello to talk about autobiography, as a real autobiography could only exist in the transparent realm of the language of the body. The only possible representation of the self is one which not only accepts the distorting power of language, but makes of such a distortion the core of self-representation.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.